Human Rights Watch

Click to expand Image Thousands of protesters gather to demand an immediate end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramped-up raids at worksites, schools, stores and courthouses in California, Los Angeles, US, June 8, 2025. © 2025 Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump wrested control of 2,000 California National Guard forces from the state’s Governor Gavin Newsom and deployed them in Los Angeles where police and protestors clashed in the streets.

President Trump claims that the move is necessary to protect federal workers and buildings, but this is dubious. Neither Newsom nor Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass believes this deployment is needed, with Newsom arguing that the “move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” 

Almost as though aiming to prove Newsom’s point, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to send active-duty troops if the protests continue; a threat that became reality when 700 marines were deployed from Twentynine Palms to Los Angeles.

The protests, which are happening nationwide, including in Los Angeles, New York City, and Phoenix, Arizona, are against ramped-up raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As a candidate, Trump said he would conduct “mass deportations” of people who are not authorized to be in the United States and vowed to start with the “worst of the worst.” Now, however, the administration has instructed ICE to do everything possible to deport 3,000 people a day.

To meet this goal, immigration officials are carrying out harrowing raids at stores, such as the Home Depot in Westlake, California, as well as at hotels, elementary school graduation ceremonies, and construction sites.

In other words, ICE is going after families and people who are working.

Additionally, weeks ago, ICE agents started showing up outside immigration courts, where asylum and other immigration cases proceed. After court hearings, people walking out of the courtroom have been handcuffed by ICE enforcement agents, often in front of their family members and loved ones. Those left behind are devastated, many breaking down into tears.

In some instances, ICE detained people after judges had reportedly dismissed their deportation cases – normally a positive outcome for immigrants hoping to stay in the US. Even cases that were not dismissed by the judges were reportedly interrupted by ICE arrests outside of the courtroom.

Most of those apprehended are being placed in rapid deportation procedures, known as “expedited removal,” which largely deny individuals the chance to make their case in immigration court. Immigrants have the right to make an asylum claim to prevent being placed in expedited removal, however, Human Rights Watch’s research on third-country nationals deported to Panama and Costa Rica puts into question whether the administration will follow the law and listen to the request for asylum.

It is these actions by ICE that are triggering protests. The Trump administration has stepped way over the line with its abusive immigration policies, and it looks poised to cross another with its threatened use of national guard and military forces to confront protests. 

Click to expand Image Thousands of protesters gather to demand an immediate end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ramped-up raids at worksites, schools, stores and courthouses in California, Los Angeles, US, June 8, 2025. © 2025 Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump wrested control of 2,000 California National Guard forces from the state’s Governor Gavin Newsom and deployed them in Los Angeles where police and protestors clashed in the streets.

President Trump claims that the move is necessary to protect federal workers and buildings, but this is dubious. Neither Newsom nor Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass believes this deployment is needed, with Newsom arguing that the “move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” 

Almost as though aiming to prove Newsom’s point, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to send active-duty troops if the protests continue; a threat that became reality when 700 marines were deployed from Twentynine Palms to Los Angeles.

The protests, which are happening nationwide, including in Los Angeles, New York City, and Phoenix, Arizona, are against ramped-up raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As a candidate, Trump said he would conduct “mass deportations” of people who are not authorized to be in the United States and vowed to start with the “worst of the worst.” Now, however, the administration has instructed ICE to do everything possible to deport 3,000 people a day.

To meet this goal, immigration officials are carrying out harrowing raids at stores, such as the Home Depot in Westlake, California, as well as at hotels, elementary school graduation ceremonies, and construction sites.

In other words, ICE is going after families and people who are working.

Additionally, weeks ago, ICE agents started showing up outside immigration courts, where asylum and other immigration cases proceed. After court hearings, people walking out of the courtroom have been handcuffed by ICE enforcement agents, often in front of their family members and loved ones. Those left behind are devastated, many breaking down into tears.

In some instances, ICE detained people after judges had reportedly dismissed their deportation cases – normally a positive outcome for immigrants hoping to stay in the US. Even cases that were not dismissed by the judges were reportedly interrupted by ICE arrests outside of the courtroom.

Most of those apprehended are being placed in rapid deportation procedures, known as “expedited removal,” which largely deny individuals the chance to make their case in immigration court. Immigrants have the right to make an asylum claim to prevent being placed in expedited removal, however, Human Rights Watch’s research on third-country nationals deported to Panama and Costa Rica puts into question whether the administration will follow the law and listen to the request for asylum.

It is these actions by ICE that are triggering protests. The Trump administration has stepped way over the line with its abusive immigration policies, and it looks poised to cross another with its threatened use of national guard and military forces to confront protests. 

Click to expand Image Police and residents stand amid debris outside the torched St. John Church on the outskirts of Faisalabad, Pakistan, on August 17, 2023, a day after Muslim men were incited to commit anti-Christian violence.  © 2023 AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

(New York) – Pakistan’s blasphemy laws perpetuate religious discrimination and are used to target the poor and minorities in unlawful evictions and land grabs, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These accusations have had devastating consequences for those affected, while the federal and provincial governments have failed to prevent the abuse or provide justice for victims.

The 29-page report, “‘A Conspiracy to Grab the Land’: Exploiting Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws for Blackmail and Profit,” documents the use of blasphemy accusations for personal economic gain. Accusers have long used blasphemy charges to incite mob violence that has forced entire communities to flee their homes, leaving their property vulnerable to land grabs. Those seeking to exploit the law for their own profit have used blasphemy accusations as a weapon against rivals and businesses owned by religious minorities.

“The Pakistani government should urgently reform its blasphemy laws to prevent them from being weaponized to blackmail rivals, settle personal scores, and attack marginalized communities,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Failure to prosecute those responsible for incitement and attacks in the past has emboldened those who use these laws to extort and blackmail in the name of religion.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 14 people who had faced blasphemy accusations, as well as lawyers, prosecutors, judges, police officials, human rights activists, and journalists between May 2024 and January 2025 in Lahore, Gujranwala, Kasur, Sheikhupura, and Islamabad districts of Pakistan.

Blasphemy is an offense officially punishable by death in Pakistan. Although no one has been executed for blasphemy, a mere accusation can be a death sentence. In the past decade, vigilantes have killed dozens of people in mob violence following blasphemy accusations.

While the targets of blasphemy accusations and the violence they foster belong to all socio-economic and religious groups in Pakistan, most of the victims have been from marginalized groups, Human Rights Watch found. Blasphemy accusations against Christians and Ahmadis in particular have often forced entire communities to flee their homes and neighborhoods. Because many minority communities in Pakistan live in informal, low-income settlements without title to the land, their forced exodus leaves their property up for easy seizure.

Those alleging blasphemy have also benefitted financially by targeting business rivals and businesses owned by religious minorities. The exploitation of the blasphemy law, in particular the ease with which someone can make an accusation as part of a personal dispute or for economic gain, has instilled fear among those most at risk.

An entrenched bias in Pakistan’s criminal justice system results in miscarriages of justice against people accused of blasphemy. The authorities almost never hold those who commit violence in the name of blasphemy to account, while those accused under discriminatory and vague blasphemy laws—generally without evidence—suffer long pretrial detention, lack of due process, and unfair trials that may result in years in prison.

In cases of vigilante attacks, police seldom take action to protect those targeted, and those who do may themselves face threats of violence. As a result, those responsible for mob violence who are protected by politicians or religious leaders avoid arrest or are acquitted.

The government of Pakistan should repeal the blasphemy law and safely release all those held or imprisoned on blasphemy charges, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should investigate all attacks and threats based on blasphemy accusations, with particular concern for those targeting religious minorities and other marginalized groups and those that result in forced evictions and large-scale forced displacement. The authorities should also institute safeguards to prevent the coerced transfer and sale of properties of those accused following any such incidents.

“The Pakistan government’s indifference to the abuses under the blasphemy law and the violence it provokes is discriminatory and violates the rights to fundamental freedoms,” Gossman said. “The authorities’ failure to hold those responsible for violence against religious minorities to account only encourages extremists and reinforces fear and insecurity among all minorities.”

Selected Accounts

Nadia (pseudonym)

Nadia, 52, a beautician and make-up artist in Lahore, is Christian. In July 2019, she decided to quit her job at a local salon and set up her own business. She pooled her life’s savings and obtained loans from people she knew to start her own salon. Her previous employer tried to dissuade her by offering a raise. When Nadia refused, the previous employer threatened her, saying that “the consequences of this will not be good for you.”

In November 2019, a mob led by a local cleric barged into her salon, beat her and her staff, and ransacked and vandalized the premises. They claimed that she had desecrated the Quran and that a boy in the neighborhood had found pages of the Quran in the trash. Nadia denies this. She said, “I respect all religions and didn’t even have a copy of the Bible at the salon. Why would I have a copy of the Quran? I would have to be completely mad and suicidal to even think about disrespecting it.”

Firoz (pseudonym)

Firoz, 43, is a Christian who runs a private school with both Muslim and Christian students in a low-income neighborhood of Lahore. In February 2021, Firoz received a call from an angry parent regarding “blasphemous” comments by a teacher. Firoz offered to meet the parent and also asked the teacher for an explanation. The teacher denied making any blasphemous comments. A few days later, a group of people affiliated with a local religious and sectarian organization threatened to “burn down the school” if an apology was not made. Firoz said that the teacher resigned. But that was not enough to appease the religious group. Firoz said:

It soon became clear to me that it wasn't about any remark or “blasphemy.” They asked me to donate PKR 200,000 (US$800) to their religious charity to “atone” for my sin. Of course, they realized that since I was a Christian, just a murmur of blasphemy would mean that my school and possibly I too would be set on fire by a mob. No one would ask any questions. My religion made me additionally vulnerable. However, a blasphemy accusation could also result in burning down of a school run by a Muslim. The truth of the allegation doesn’t matter. Now, I have started a cycle of blackmail, and they can extort me whenever.

Mian Yasir

Mian Yasir, a lawyer who has represented several blasphemy defendants over the past decade, said:

In my experience, almost all blasphemy accusations in Pakistan are driven by personal motives and mostly by economic reasons. The accusation is a weapon to settle all kinds of scores. Religious minorities are additionally vulnerable, but everyone is vulnerable, even Muslim religious clerics are not immune. Anyone can weaponize this against anyone at any time in Pakistan. This is the sad reality.

Sawan Masih

In March 2013, a mob of about 3,000 people attacked Joseph Colony, a Christian housing community in Badami Bagh, following an allegation of blasphemy against Sawan Masih, a resident. More than 100 houses were ransacked, burned, and looted. The entire community fled. The local government said that the police had “avoided” confronting the “religiously charged mob” because if any officers were killed “the issue might have blown out of proportion and spread all across the country.”

Instead of protecting the residents of Joseph Colony, the police arrested Masih. In 2014, a trial court sentenced him to death. His conviction was finally overturned in 2020. Local residents and rights activists maintained that the objective of the attack was to capture land in Joseph Colony. At the trial, Masih said that for years, businessmen linked to the local steel industry had pressured the Christian community to sell their property and leave because they wanted the land:

They contrived a case under the blasphemy law.… They put up banners against me alleging blasphemy against the Prophet.… They played with the religious sentiments of the people.… They involved the local police to create fear and alarm among Christian residents who were threatened and told to leave the colony to save their lives.… This was a conspiracy to grab the colony.

A number of families moved out because they knew they would remain vulnerable to such attacks in the future.

Click to expand Image Eric Tataw. © Eric Tataw/X

In a possible step towards justice, Eric Tataw, a Cameroonian national residing in the US state of Maryland, has been charged in Federal court with crimes including threatening violence against civilians.

Tataw, 38, is a social media activist.

The April indictment stemmed from an investigation conducted by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Diplomatic Security Service, which alleges that Tataw called for the “murder, kidnapping, maiming of civilians” as well as raising funds for armed groups in Cameroon. The investigation states that Tataw, known as the “Garri master,” a term he coined referring to the mutilation of those refusing to submit to the rule of armed separatist groups, also called for the “destruction of public, educational, and cultural property [in Cameroon].”

Human Rights Watch documented that in October 9, 2019, Tataw posted a video on his Facebook profile praising the kidnapping of two girls and their father for violating a school ban imposed by separatists.

Tataw is not the first person to be investigated outside of Cameroon for alleged crimes committed by separatist armed groups. In September 2024, Norwegian police arrested Lucas Cho Ayaba on suspicion of incitement to commit crimes against humanity in Cameroon.

Since 2016, the violent crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions has killed at least 6,000 people and forced over 334,000 from their homes. Separatist armed groups have committed serious human rights abuses.

Cameroonian government forces have also committed serious crimes, including mass killings, torture of civilians, and widespread burning of homes and other civilian property. Perpetrators have faced little accountability.

While arrests like those of Tataw and Ayaba may be steps in the right direction, justice is still painfully slow. Other alleged perpetrators of grave abuse, including government forces, should be brought to account for the serious crimes committed against civilians in Cameroon.

Click to expand Image Afghani evacuee Israr, 26, shows photos on his phone of himself working in Afghanistan as a translator with military forces at his new apartment in Charlestown, Massachusetts, February 21, 2022. © 2022 Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Have you ever been shut out or denied something based solely on your group identity? That is the essence of discrimination; a deeply dehumanizing disregard for individuality, reducing your personal value to a generic category.

On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court unanimously reiterated in Ames v. Ohio that the US Civil Rights Act “focuses on individuals rather than groups, barring discrimination against ‘any individual’ because of protected characteristics.”

Yet the same day, President Donald Trump rolled out a new “travel ban” on 12 nationality groups, barring US entry to nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and partially restricting entry for nationals of another seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

While this version of the travel ban is worded more carefully than the ham-fisted “Muslim ban” of the first Trump administration, making its biases less obvious, it nevertheless bears the hallmarks of prejudice and malice. Scan the list of countries above and recall the Oval Office meeting Trump held with US Senators during his first term when he said the United States should accept more immigrants from places like Norway rather than Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa.

As someone who has worked on behalf of refugees for four decades, I can attest that people are not defined by their nationality. In fact, it is often dissent from ruling governments and majority cultures that compels individuals to leave their places of birth to seek freedom and restart their lives in foreign places. 

The United States has traditionally been receptive to the individuality of Cubans, Afghans, Eritreans, Iranians, and the others on the banned list, recognizing that they are not defined by the societies that oppress them or otherwise compel them to leave. In fact, the US refugee resettlement program—now cancelled for all refugees worldwide except white South Africans—carefully vetted many individuals from these countries, many of whom are now US citizens who will no longer be able to reunite with family members, even for merely a visit.

The President, indeed, has wide discretion to decide who is and isn’t allowed to enter the US. This power, however, does not justify its abuse on spurious grounds.

Click to expand Image Soldiers march during the annual Military Parade in Saraburi province, Thailand, January 18, 2020. © 2020 Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

(Bangkok) – A Thai civilian court’s conviction of two army instructors for the beating death of a conscript is the first successful prosecution under Thailand’s 2022 prevention of torture law, Human Rights Watch said today. The case highlights the need for the Thai government to punish military commanders’ use of torture and corporal punishment against soldiers under their command.

On May 27, 2025, the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases in Rayong province found two army instructors guilty in the death of Pvt. Worapratch Phadmasakul and sentenced them to 15 and 20 years in prison. Eleven senior conscripts face 10-year prison terms for assisting the crime. These are the first convictions under Thailand’s Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, which took effect on February 22, 2023.

“The court conviction of army instructors for a conscript’s death is a major step in Thailand’s efforts to end torture and inhumane disciplinary measures against soldiers in barracks,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Appropriate sentences will chip away at the Thai military’s entrenched impunity and show that commanders can be held accountable.”

Worapratch, 18, died after being severely beaten during disciplinary punishment on August 2, 2024 at the 3rd Infantry Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment in Chonburi province near Bangkok. Medical reports showed he suffered brain swelling, broken ribs, a punctured lung, fractured collarbone, and spinal injuries.

Worapratch’s family said in a media interview that they planned to appeal the verdict, believing the instructors should receive a harsher sentence, up to life in prison. They also said that military superiors overseeing the instructors should be prosecuted for failing to take necessary measures to prevent the brutal beating of their son. The family plans to file a civil lawsuit against the army to seek compensation for damages.

The armed forces induct about 50,000 personnel – voluntary recruits and by conscription – across Thailand each year. Abuse of conscripts in barracks remains pervasive, despite the Thai military’s repeated statements that corporal punishment is strictly forbidden.

The Thai government and armed forces have long shown an inability to end abuses against conscripts. In addition, Thai military officials implicated in serious abuses have at times brought criminal defamation or cybercrime lawsuits against their accusers in retaliation.

In November 2024, the United Nations Committee against Torture, which monitors state compliance with the Convention Against Torture, expressed concern over torture and ill-treatment, in some cases resulting in death, of conscripts in Thailand. Worapratch’s case is one of the 21 deaths of conscripts reported between 2009 and 2024. Three of these cases, including Worapratch’s, occurred after the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act took effect.

The prevention of torture law carries penalties of up to life in prison, and creates a new path to prosecute military personnel by giving jurisdiction to the civilian Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases.

A superior officer who knows that a person under their command is about to or has committed an offense, but fails to take necessary or reasonable measures within their power to prevent the crime or investigate and prosecute those responsible, is liable for half of the penalty for the offense.

Thai authorities should carry out effective investigations of all deaths of conscripts and prosecute those responsible under the prevention of torture law and in accordance with Thailand’s obligations under the Convention Against Torture, which Thailand ratified in 2007, Human Rights Watch said.

“Thailand needs to take swift action to show that there is no place in its armed forces for those who believe they have unchecked powers to abuse conscripts or anyone else,” Pearson said. “The government and military commanders should act to ensure that Private Worapatch’s death will be the last case of barrack brutality in Thailand.”

Last weekend marked the anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 when the thriving Black community in the Greenwood neighborhood was violently attacked by a white mob, killing more than 300 Black residents, as well as destroying many homes and businesses. As of today, neither the two remaining survivors nor anyone else have received compensation for their losses.

Click to expand Image Smoke billows after 1921 Race Massacre, Tulsa, Oklahoma. © 1921 Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress via AP Photo

On January 17, the US Department of Justice issued a report finding that “white law enforcement and residents coordinated an attack” on Greenwood and that survivors would not have legal redress under any law.

The Trump administration has signaled no intention of addressing the need for justice. Rather than move towards a racial reckoning, the administration has undermined the wider cause of racial justice. In a particularly shocking move, it effectively ended the United States’ longstanding refugee resettlement program and made only one exception— offering to take in white South Africans, a group that benefitted from colonialism and racial apartheid and its legacies for more than 100 years, as refugees. There is no evidence that Afrikaners face systematic persecution of any kind.

The Trump administration could stand to learn from South Africa’s approach to reparations which was rooted in acknowledging past harms and seeking restorative justice for victims of systemic racial oppression through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The South African government continues to address the racial injustices of colonialism and apartheid. Though with challenges.

As the US is barraged by the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI, cuts to federal jobs which disproportionately impact Black employees, and deporting mostly immigrants of color without due process, now is the time to strengthen the fight for racial justice. Active federal, state and municipal reparations efforts can be found across the country with documented successes, including a reparations plan at last for the Tulsa survivors and the descendants of the massacre. The call for U.S. reparations is not merely about monetary compensation; it is a demand for justice, recognition, and healing.

Click to expand Image Remnant of a Turkish-made drone dropped munition used in an attack on a farm south of Kobane that killed ten members of the Abdo family, March 2025. © 2025 Private

(Beirut, May 29, 2025) – A March 16, 2025 drone attack by Türkiye or Türkiye-backed Syrian factions killed seven Kurdish children, their 18-year-old sister, and their parents, apparently all civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack raises concerns that the attackers did not take adequate precautions to minimize harm to civilians.

“Even if a military target was nearby, the forces responsible should have done all they could to minimize civilian harm,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Given the devastating toll on one family, it appears the attackers did not take sufficient measures to spare civilians.”

This potentially unlawful attack raises concerns about ongoing abuses in Syria, as the new government integrates forces with abusive records, and about Türkiye’s continued support for these groups. It is a stark reminder that hostilities are still killing Syrian civilians. 

On March 10, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement for integration of forces into the Syrian army and the return of internally displaced people.

On March 16, a drone dropped a Turkish-made munition on a farm near villages controlled by the SDF south of Kobane, killing the family. The farm lies near the front line with territory formerly held by Türkiye-backed factions of the former Syrian National Army (SNA). Only one family member, a 9-year-old girl, survived. Many former SNA factions now affiliated with the transitional government’s defense ministry remain active in the area.

Human Rights Watch interviewed the farm’s owner, three neighbors who witnessed the aftermath of the attack, and a local human rights activist. Researchers analyzed 21 photos and videos provided by residents and posted online, including footage of the explosion and the evacuation of victims, as well as images of the damage, munition remnants, and bloodied clothing.

Sheraz Qamislo, 33, the farm’s owner, said he hired Othman Abdo, 44, as a live-in farmhand on his farm, 25 kilometers south of Kobane, 10 days before the attack. Qamislo said Abdo had no known ties to Kurdish armed groups. 

The farm is about 15 kilometers from a military base from where former SNA forces and Turkish forces operate jointly, the owner and the three neighbors said. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm the exact location of the base.

Halim Ahmed, who lives one kilometer north, separated from the farm by a field, said that about 20 minutes before midnight on March 16, he heard a drone and then several “loud explosions” from the direction of the military base. “Two minutes later, a munition hit the valley by the farm,” he said.

Another neighbor, Aqeed Khashom, who lives in the building next to Halim, said he also heard a drone and what he thought was “artillery fire” from the direction of the base, followed by children’s screams. He said the shelling and drone strike lasted about 15 minutes.

Öcalan Ahmed, another neighbor, said he heard “blasts” and saw the farm go up in flames: “A few minutes later, I heard the drone strike the valley, and after that, I could no longer hear any voices.”

A video that a neighbor said he took from an elevated position in the direction of the farm shows vehicle headlights, a plume of smoke, and an explosion in the distance. The moon’s shape and position match the time and date of the attack.

Shortly afterward, a man on a motorbike coming from the farm’s direction informed Halim and Öcalan of the casualties. They both said the man was another neighbor of Abdo’s who had been visiting the family, but they didn’t know him personally.

Halim and Öcalan rushed to the scene and found the family in the field between their homes and the farmhouse, presumably fleeing the initial attack. Only two family members were alive; one died later in the hospital. “It was a massacre,” Khashom said.

The victims were: Othman Berkel Abdo, 44; Ghazala Usman Abdo, 41; Ronida, 18; Ahin, 14; Dijla, 12; Dlovan, 11; Yasser, 7; Saleha, 5; Fawaz, 4; and Avista, 9 months. The survivor, Nareen, 9, had metal fragment injuries to her leg, head, and abdomen.

Click to expand Image Villagers and members of the Kobane community gathered to bury ten members of the Abdo family, all of whom were killed in a drone strike, March 2025. © 2025 Private

Eight images and one video reviewed by Human Rights Watch show the bloodied bodies of at least five children, one woman, and one man resembling Othman Abdo.

Ronida had joined the Asayish, the Kurdish law enforcement forces in northeast Syria, in mid-2024.

A video of munition remnants at the site analyzed by Human Rights Watch was consistent with parts of a Turkish-made MAM-L laser-guided bomb, which is launched by drones and guided by a semi-active laser seeker, indicating the operator could observe the strike in real time. Images of the damage show uniform fragmentation damage consistent with a munition equipped with preformed fragmentation embedded in the body of the munition to enhance its casualty-producing effect, especially on unprotected personnel in the open.

Human Rights Watch could not verify whether any Kurdish-led armed forces were at the farm that night. Qamislo, the neighbors, and the activist said the nearest SDF position is 15 to 20 kilometers away, and they saw no evidence of armed forces at the farm or any return fire. Photos and videos reviewed by Human Rights Watch showed no military personnel, equipment, or weapons among the rubble.

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects, or that are indiscriminate, or disproportionate in the civilian harm caused. Civilians have immunity from attack, unless and for such time as they are directly participating in hostilities. In the conduct of military operations, parties to a conflict must take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects from the effects of hostilities. Parties are required to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects, whether in attack or defense, and should seek to cancel or suspend an attack if they determine the target is not a military objective or would cause disproportionate civilian harm. 

If the attack was carried out by Turkish forces, Türkiye bears ultimate responsibility. If carried out by former SNA factions, the Syrian authorities bear responsibility for abuses by forces integrated into the army as well as for preventing abuses and ensuring accountability. Türkiye, which still oversees some former SNA factions and continues to provide them with weapons, salaries, training, and logistical support, may also bear responsibility for their abuses.

The Syrian transitional government should urgently unify its military under an accountable command with civilian oversight and ensure adherence to international humanitarian law. It should take steps to prevent further violations against Kurdish and other northern Syrian residents and investigate violations with fair legal proceedings. Türkiye should stop supporting abusive commanders and factions and provide reparations to victims.

“Türkiye and Syrian transitional authorities should conduct impartial, thorough, and transparent investigations into the attack,” Coogle said. “They should compensate victims of any unlawful strikes and take all feasible measures to minimize civilian casualties.”

Click to expand Image A person from the Guna Indigenous community along the shore of Gardi Sugdub Island, off Panama's Caribbean coast. © 2024 Matias Delacroix/AP Photo

World Environment Day 2025 arrives amid a barrage of sobering news. 

 

Key developments around the world, however, offer a reminder that the global fight for environmental human rights is waged in frontline communities as well as in legislative halls. And where local communities are leading, there’s reason for hope.

In February the government in Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest state, announced it would stop issuing provisional leases for oil palm plantations in a bid to stem deforestation. Provisional leases are often used in Sarawak to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their ancestral forests, among the most ancient and biodiverse in the world. They do this by allowing companies to start operations on their land before the state had surveyed it. Ending these leases has been a top priority for Indigenous communities and their allies, including Human Rights Watch.

A United States appeals court in April revived a community-led effort by residents of St. James Parish in the state of Louisiana to stop the construction of new petrochemical plants in parts of an area known as “Cancer Alley.” The petitioners allege that decades of discriminatory policies forced Black and low-income residents to “live in some of the most polluted, toxic--and lethal--census tracts in the country.” A lower court had dismissed the lawsuit on a procedural question; the appeals court ruling opens the door for the merits of the communities’ arguments to be heard in court.

In Panama, Indigenous communities confronting rising seas and coastal erosion have pushed the government closer to establishing a national policy for planned relocation. Panama’s Ministry of Environment announced a draft executive decree in February that laid the legal foundation for a National Planned Relocation Protocol sought by communities and that Human Rights Watch recommended. A national approach would ensure that when communities like on Gardi Sugdub, a tiny island home to the Guna Indigenous people, seek to relocate, this support is provided in a way that preserves their culture and protects their rights.

Across continents, local communities are working with resolve and resourcefulness to protect their environment, health, and ways of life, deploying strategies that can be reproduced elsewhere. Such efforts are an antidote to mounting despair. The challenges posed by the climate crisis are myriad, but so are the solutions; in many places, they are already bearing fruit.

Click to expand Image People protesting against the abuse of girls, Durban, South Africa, April 1, 2025. © 2025 Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images

As South Africa commemorates Child Protection Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness about the safety and wellbeing of children, a recent spate of violent attacks highlights how children in the country are still often left unprotected.

Despite legislation that protects the rights of children, including the constitution, the Children’s Act and the National Plan of Action for Children, reported cases of violence against children in South Africa continue unabated, with each case seemingly more brutal than the last. Some cases don’t make it to the headlines or go unreported.

These cases highlight South Africa’s weakened protection system and lack of promotion of children’s rights. While high levels of school-related sexual violence continue to be reported, media reports also indicate an increasing number of child neglect and abuse cases by parents and their partners. These include the high-profile case of six-year-old Joshlin Smith, who went missing over a year ago and whose mother was recently convicted of involvement in her kidnapping and trafficking; the “Cwecwe rape” case of a 7-year-old girl, which sparked media attention; the 8-day-old baby, Caithlyn Ferreira, who was raped and killed by her father; and Sandisa Myeza, a 15-year-old boy who was assaulted at school by another pupil.

In the last five years, nearly 3,000 children were reported missing, according to Save the Children South Africa. In November 2024, the Teddy Bear Foundation, an organization working on child abuse in South Africa, reported that of the more than 5,000 cases it dealt with between 2019 and 2024, only four percent led to convictions.

From January to March, the South African Police Service reported that 60 cases of rape were recorded at nursery schools, primary schools, high schools, and special schools. Fifty-four of these victims were students. More than half were raped by other pupils and some by teachers and acquaintances. In addition, 26,852 cases of child abuse and neglect were reported to the South African Police Service during this period.

As Child Protection Week wraps up, South African authorities should initiate urgent, sustained, and multisector interventions to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of all children, as articulated in the country’s constitution and the Children’s Act. The authorities should also scale up preventative, response, and support services for families, schools, and communities most affected by violence against children.

Click to expand Image The Criminal Court of Appeal building in Yerevan, Armenia, July 12, 2018. © 2018 Asatur Yesayants/Sputnik via AP Photo

Vahagn Petrosyan was 36 years old when a court stripped him of his legal capacity in September 2015, claiming his psychosocial disability prevented him from being able to make his own decisions. For years he endured neglect and violence in institutions, without the right to control his life or access justice.

Armenian law obligates the state to ensure people with disabilities are fully included in public life, but the country lacks community-based support for persons with psychosocial disabilities and adequate assistance for their families. The state is also obligated to ensure equal access to justice but does not provide any procedural accommodations, such as remote hearings, personal assistance, or accessible documents.

In November 2023, Petrosyan managed to restore his legal capacity and attempted to restart his life, seeking acceptance, employment, and the chance to rebuild his social connections.

But his ongoing experience illustrates the exclusion that results from the state’s systemic failures.

Following a violent incident involving a family member in August 2024, Petrosyan was arrested and placed in a penitentiary hospital for two months. During that time, he participated in three court hearings.

A few months later, the state psychiatric commission declared Petrosyan “insane,” deemed him unfit for trial and in need of hospitalization in a psychiatric facility, where he remains involuntary. The court excluded Petrosyan from four further hearings regarding his detention. Two hearings also took place without his state-appointed lawyer, a due process failure which the court didn’t address.

For eight months, the authorities held Petrosyan’s wallet and pension card, depriving him of his only source of income.

During Petrosyan’s two months in the penitentiary hospital, he did not receive sufficient care or support, and his conditions may have amounted to ill-treatment. Currently the absence of recovery services in the psychiatric hospital, which would support him in regaining and maintaining control over his life, may further trap him in prolonged institutionalization.

Armenia’s justice system should not reinforce discriminatory and punitive practices that strip people with psychosocial disabilities of personhood and dignity, as it has done with Petrosyan. It should guarantee their rights by providing them with due process safeguards on an equal basis with others, and the necessary procedural accommodations to enable them to defend their interests, including while in detention. Authorities should invest in community-based services and ensure that a person’s disability is not used as a basis for detention.

Click to expand Image Save Our Songlines protesters march near the site of the North West Shelf oil and gas project in 2022.  © 2022 Save Our Songlines

Last week, the Australian government announced it had given preliminary approval for the country’s biggest fossil fuel project, the North West Shelf Project, to continue operations until 2070. The facility, on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula, is the country's largest liquefied natural gas plant. The extension has been opposed by Indigenous activists and climate and human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch.

The area surrounding the Burrup plant is known as Murujuga and is culturally significant to Indigenous groups for its more than one million ancient rock carvings called petroglyphs. Save Our Songlines, an Indigenous-led campaign group, have described Murujuga as a place of worship, and the petroglyphs as being equivalent to holy scriptures.

There is evidence air pollution from the project is already damaging the petroglyphs, which date back 50,000 years and include the world’s oldest recorded depiction of human faces. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently rejected Australia’s bid to add Murujuga’s Cultural Landscape to its World Heritage List, citing concerns over damage to the petroglyphs being caused by industrial emissions.

Professor Benjamin Smith, an expert in petroglyphs, has warned that if the pollution continues, the rock art risks being lost altogether. He has accused the state government of misrepresenting evidence that damage to the petroglyphs was caused by pollution from the Burrup gas plant.

Extending the project has also raised serious concerns about exacerbating the global climate crisis and its detrimental effects. Australia is already one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters. The scientific community has urgently called for phasing out the use of fossil fuels to achieve the target of limiting the increase in global average temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The Australia Institute’s analysis found that the extension of the project will result in the release of 90 million tonnes of emissions annually, equivalent to 12 Australian coal power stations.

Indigenous campaigners have said they will keep fighting the project. Raelene Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman and Murujuga traditional custodian, has launched a federal court legal action to compel the Australian government to protect the rock art.

The Australian government should not be putting business interests ahead of Indigenous people’s cultural rights and the rights to a healthy environment. Fulfilling these obligations means revoking the extension of the North West Shelf Project. 

Click to expand Image People watch a live broadcast of the inauguration ceremony of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, June 4, 2025. © AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

(Seoul) – South Korea’s National Election Committee announced on June 4, 2025, that Lee Jae-myung from Democratic Party won the country’s presidential elections. The inauguration is scheduled for June 4. The election followed the impeachment of then-President Yoon Seok-yul for imposing martial law in December 2024.

The following quote can be attributed to Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch:

“President-elect Lee Jae-myung has an urgent responsibility amid the political turmoil of recent months to address the serious human rights challenges facing South Korea, including protecting free expression, combating digital sex crimes, upholding older people’s rights in the workplace, and promoting North Korean human rights. Amidst the political turmoil of these elections, Lee Jae-myung should take concrete steps to uphold democratic institutions, ensure equal rights for all, and act to hold the North Korean government accountable for abuses.”

Click to expand Image Burned vehicles near Ras Issa port in Hodeidah, Yemen following US strikes on April 17, 2025. Photo taken on April 18, 2025.  © 2025 AFP via Getty Images

(Beirut) – US military strikes on the Ras Issa Port in Hodeidah, Yemen, on April 17, 2025, caused dozens of civilian casualties and significant damage to port infrastructure, Human Rights Watch said today. The attack should be investigated as a war crime. 

As part of its military campaign against the Houthis, who control much of Yemen, that began on March 15, the United States targeted Ras Issa Port, one of three ports in the town of Hodeidah through which about 70 percent of Yemen’s commercial imports and 80 percent of its humanitarian assistance passes. Human Rights Watch identified via satellite imagery multiple attack sites. The independent research group Airwars found that the strikes killed 84 civilians and injured over 150.

“The US government’s decision to strike Ras Issa Port, a critical entry point for aid in Yemen, while hundreds of workers were present demonstrates a callous disregard for civilians’ lives,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “At a time when the majority of Yemenis don’t have adequate access to food and water, the attack’s impact on humanitarian aid could be enormous, particularly after Trump administration aid cutbacks.” 

Sources in Yemen said that the Houthis have threatened and reportedly arrested people from areas hit by US strikes for speaking to the media or nongovernmental organizations, making it difficult to verify information about the strikes.

Human Rights Watch interviewed one person whose uncle was killed in the attack and two sources with knowledge of the destruction, including a staff member of Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, an independent research institute. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery, reviewed photographs and videos of the attack site, and assessed data published by the Yemen Data Project, another nongovernmental group, and Airwars. Human Rights Watch wrote to the US Defense Department on May 8 with preliminary findings but received no response.

Based on satellite imagery and other sources, the attacks on Ras Issa took place between the morning of April 17 and the morning of April 18. They destroyed fuel tanks and considerable areas of port infrastructure. Two sources said that several berths, the customs area, and cargo unloading facilities had been severely damaged or destroyed. Both sources said that initially after the attack, the destruction had significantly reduced the port’s operations. Port operations are still limited. 

Airwars identified 84 civilians who were killed in the attack through analyzing social media posts. Forty-nine were people who worked at the port, several were truck drivers, and two were civil defense personnel. Others may have been workers’ family members. Three were identified as children. The list contained one person identified as a “colonel,” but who was not necessarily a military member. The Hodeidah Branch of the government-owned Yemen Oil Company posted photographs of 49 employees they said were killed. Human Rights Watch has not independently verified the identities of those who were killed. 

US Central Command said in an April 17 statement about the attacks: “Today, US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years. … The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis.”

A United Nations spokesman stated that the secretary-general was “alarmed by reports of significant damage to the port infrastructure and of possible oil leaks into the Red Sea,” and that at least five humanitarian workers were reportedly injured. In a satellite image collected on the morning of April 18, long trails that appear to be fuel leaks are visible from the location of strikes and extending into the sea. 

The applicable international humanitarian law during the fighting in Yemen prohibits deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects. An attack not directed at a specific military objective is indiscriminate. An attack is disproportionate if the expected civilian loss is excessive compared to the anticipated military gain. When used by an armed force or non-state armed group, port facilities and oil storage tanks can be valid military objectives. However, attacking the port fuel depot because it is an “economic source of power of the Houthis” or provides them revenue would make virtually any entity that provided economic benefit subject to military attack. 

Under UN Security Council Resolution 2534 (2020), the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement is mandated to oversee Hodeidah city and the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Salif to ensure that no military personnel or material are present. 

No information has been made public indicating that weapons or military supplies were stored at or delivered to the port, or that the oil, monitored under Resolution 2534, was being diverted to the Houthi military, which would make the US attack unlawfully indiscriminate. However, even if the attack were against valid military objectives, the harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure most likely made the attack unlawfully disproportionate. In addition to the civilian casualties, the damage to the port facilities would appear to inflict excessive immediate and longer-term harm for many Yemenis who rely on the Hodeidah ports for survival.

Under international humanitarian law, serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent are war crimes. Commanders may be criminally liable under the principle of command responsibility if they knew or should have known about crimes their subordinates committed and failed to adequately prevent the crime or punish those responsible.

The US should credibly and impartially investigate this and other attacks in Yemen with civilian casualties in apparent violation of the laws of war and provide prompt compensation or “ex gratia” payments to civilians harmed. These include an April 28 attack on a migrant detention center in Saada that killed dozens of migrants and asylum seekers.

US airstrikes in Yemen began on March 15 and continued until May 6, when President Donald Trump announced an end to the strikes. The US Defense Department said it had carried out over 1,000 strikes in Yemen between March 15 and April 29. 

The US has been implicated in laws-of-war violations in Yemen since it began “targeted killing operations” in 2002 against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Those strikes continued until at least 2019 and killed many civilians, including 12 people attending a wedding in 2013. To Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, the US has never acknowledged or provided compensation for civilians harmed in this or other unlawful attacks.

The US also provided direct military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in their conflict against the Houthis, starting in March 2015. Numerous coalition attacks during that conflict violated the laws of war. 

“The recent US airstrikes in Yemen are just the latest causing civilian harm in the country over the past two decades,” Jafarnia said. “The Trump administration should reverse past US practice and provide prompt compensation to those unlawfully harmed.”

Click to expand Image Photograph shared by a Nyala resident on February 6, 2025, shows the destroyed building at the location of a February 3 airstrike near the Mecca Eye Hospital in Nyala, South Darfur.  © Private The Sudanese Armed Forces killed scores of civilians in attacks that used unguided air-dropped bombs on residential and commercial neighborhoods in Nyala, South Darfur in early February.These attacks were indiscriminate because the bombs used have wide-area effects with limited accuracy and cannot, under most conditions, be directed at a specific military target in populated areas. Deliberately or recklessly conducting indiscriminate attacks is a war crime.The Sudanese Armed Forces should immediately end all indiscriminate attacks. Other countries should sanction Sudan’s air force leadership for such attacks.

(Nairobi, June 4, 2025) – The Sudanese Armed Forces used unguided air-dropped bombs to carry out attacks in residential and commercial neighborhoods in Nyala, South Darfur in early February 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The indiscriminate attacks, apparent war crimes, killed and injured scores of civilians.

The Sudanese military has repeatedly conducted attacks on Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the military’s adversary in the conflict, took control of the city in late October 2023. The city, home to over 800,000 inhabitants before the current conflict, is the largest city in Darfur and one of the largest in Sudan

“The Sudanese military has hit densely populated residential and commercial neighborhoods in Nyala using inaccurate bombs,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These attacks have killed scores of men, women, and children, destroyed families, and caused fear and displacement.”

Human Rights Watch received credible reports of numerous strikes between November 2024 and February 2025, and researchers conducted detailed investigations into five airstrikes on February 3, which was particularly deadly for civilians. Researchers interviewed 11 victims and witnesses and 3 medical staff who treated victims, and analyzed satellite imagery, photographs and videos from social media and witnesses, including of munition remnants from three of the strikes.

The February 3 strikes hit busy residential and commercial areas in the central Al-Jumhuriya and Al-Cinema neighborhoods in quick succession, as well as Congo Road, a major road in the city, witnesses said. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that 32 people were killed and dozens were injured. A strike that hit a grocery store near the Mecca Eye Hospital on a street teeming with people and vehicles, was particularly deadly, witnesses said.

“[The] place was completely destroyed and damaged by the airstrike,” said a man who arrived at the scene shortly afterward. “Many people were killed. One [among the dead] was an [older] lady... And the passengers in a Toyota vehicle, and people passing by.” He said that more than 35 people were killed there.

ACLED, which collects data on conflicts around the world, estimates that 51 to 74 civilians were killed and scores more injured between February 2-4. MSF reported that at least 25 people were killed in strikes on February 4 and that 21 people injured in a strike on a peanut oil factory were brought to the Nyala Teaching Hospital, which it operates.

Click to expand Image Map of the five documented airstrikes on February 3, 2025, on Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan. © 2025 Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs of munition remnants to determine which weapons were used in three strikes on February 3 and was able to do so for two. Human Rights Watch determined that the strike just outside the Mecca Eye Hospital used an OFAB-250 air-dropped bomb, an unguided high-explosive and fragmentation bomb. In another strike that hit a road about 140 meters northwest of the hospital, Human Rights Watch identified an FAB-series general purpose, unguided air-dropped bomb.

Five witnesses described a single aircraft, not consistent with a jet fighter, overhead at the time of the strikes. “I saw the airplane circling around the city,” one man said. This was a big airplane, like a cargo plane… It struck on its second circle around the city.” 

“It was flying very, very high,” said a daily laborer who survived a strike that killed his sister and nephew on February 3. “The time between the two strikes wasn’t long, maybe one or two minutes—the plane hits, takes a turn, and then hits again, after a very short interval.”

Because OFAB-250 and other unguided bombs in the OFAB or FAB series have wide-area effects and limited accuracy, they cannot, under most conditions, be directed at a specific military target. So when used in a populated area, such as the dense residential neighborhoods of Nyala, they are likely to hit military targets and civilians or civilian objects without distinction, making the attack indiscriminate. The February 3 strikes were apparently indiscriminate and in violation of international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch said. Deliberately or recklessly conducting indiscriminate attacks is a war crime.

When forces are deployed in populated areas, such as the RSF in Nyala, they must avoid locating military objectives near densely populated areas and endeavor to remove civilians from the vicinity of military activities. The RSF severely restricts access for civilians to parts of eastern Nyala.

However, the airstrikes on residential areas of Nyala have exacted a heavy toll on civilians. “The airstrikes are the worst, because they destroy everything,” said the daily laborer, “When it comes to bullets, people can avoid them and take cover from them, but we cannot take cover from airstrikes. They are too powerful.”

Access to and availability of medical care for victims is minimal. Four witnesses interviewed said they were unable to get treatment to remove fragments of the munitions, because they could not afford it or because of the shortage of qualified doctors in Nyala.

The Sudanese Armed Forces should immediately end all indiscriminate attacks, including those involving the use of unguided air-dropped bombs on populated areas, Human Rights Watch said.

Other countries should follow the EU in sanctioning Sudan’s air force leadership for such attacks. Sudan should guarantee access for monitors, including the International Criminal Court and the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, to investigate violations by all warring parties. Governments should ensure the necessary political and financial support for ongoing investigations.

“Despite international expressions of concern, civilians continue to bear the brunt of Sudan's devastating two-year-old war,” Gallopin said. “Other countries need to take concerted action to protect civilians and prevent further indiscriminate attacks by investigating and sanctioning those responsible on all sides.”

Human Rights Watch and others have for decades documented indiscriminate aerial attacks on populated areas by Sudan’s military using unguided bombs dropped from cargo airplanes flying at high altitude. In the current war, which started in April 2023, numerous airstrikes by Sudan’s armed forces across RSF-controlled parts of Sudan have killed and injured countless civilians.

The early February strikes were part of a broader surge of aerial bombings of Nyala by the military. Over a three-month period between December 2024 and February 2025, ACLED recorded 41 days with airstrikes, including days with multiple airstrikes. Many have hit Nyala’s eastern neighborhoods, which host a heavy concentration of RSF fighters across many locations, including at and around the Nyala airport, a key RSF hub.

The Sudanese military’s intensified campaign of airstrikes on Nyala coincided with reports that the RSF had started to use the Nyala airport as a drone base and that large cargo planes were landing at airport. The RSF’s use of the airport for military purpose makes it a military objective, and a legitimate target. Local media reported that the RSF in Nyala carried out waves of arrests of people it suspected of providing coordinates for airstrikes to the SAF in early December and again in late January.

Attacks directed at RSF fighters and at military targets such as the airport, so long as they do not cause indiscriminate or disproportionate civilian harm, are compatible with the laws of war. 

International humanitarian law does not prohibit attacks on urban areas if there are military targets but attacks directed at civilians or civilian objects, or that cause indiscriminate or disproportionate civilian harm are always prohibited, and may constitute war crimes if carried out with the requisite criminal intent. The presence of many civilians in urban areas places greater responsibilities on warring parties to take steps to minimize harm to civilians and attacking parties should seek to cancel or suspend an attack if they determine the target is not a military objective or would cause indiscriminate or disproportionate civilian harm.

February 2-4 Strikes on Nyala

There were daily strikes on Nyala between January 31, 2025, and February 5. Airstrikes hit the city center for three consecutive days on February 2, 3, and 4, a health care worker at the Nyala Teaching Hospital said.

On February 3, there were at least five strikes within a 40-minute interval. The first strike hit Congo Road, a major avenue in the city, near the Nyala Teaching Hospital. Two then hit houses in Al-Jumhuriya neighborhood. A fourth hit a road just north of the Cinema and a fifth hit a grocery store near the Mecca Eye Hospital, on the edge of the Cinema neighborhood.

Within 10 minutes of the first strike on February 3, patients began to arrive at the emergency room of the Nyala Teaching Hospital, a health care worker said. “While we were dealing with the patients, another bomb dropped. We were treating patients, and at the same time we were afraid.” The health care worker said:

Some had severe injuries. Some had amputated limbs, others had severe injuries to the head or abdomen. Some had fractured upper or lower limbs. … Two died in our facility. One, about 18, had head trauma. The other was about 30 and had polytrauma – an amputated foot and right arm fracture.

Fifteen or sixteen injured people were taken to the hospital that day, the worker said, and nearly 50 victims over these three days. Nine injured adults, including two women, were taken to the hospital the afternoon of February 2, with burns, fractures, and one with an amputated foot. On February 4, 21 injured victims were taken to the hospital: two died there, and two women died after being transferred out of the hospital, workers said.

All the victims taken to the hospital were civilians, two health care workers said. Both said the RSF use other locations to treat their injured fighters.

Strike on Congo Road, February 3

The first bomb to hit Nyala on February 3 struck Congo road, near Al Nur Al Khairi Eye Hospital and the cell phone company Zain, about 200 meters from the Nyala Teaching Hospital, three witnesses said. The explosion killed an unidentified number of civilians.

Click to expand Image A photograph by a Nyala resident taken on April 4, 2025, shows a damaged house at the location of a February 3 airstrike on Congo Road in Nyala, South Darfur.  © 2025 Private

A day laborer from the neighborhood had just left his house with his 40-year-old sister and his nephew, in his 20s, when they noticed an airplane overhead. He said he did not notice any RSF presence before the strike:

I was only 10 meters away from my house when I saw the airplane, and people started to run around scared, and they said there is a plane, a plane is coming! … It was a white plane… flying very, very high and the sound was so big… There was a crowd of people [on the street], people going to work, just being on the street, or going somewhere… There was some panic and people didn’t know whether to stay outside or try to hide… Everybody started to run around. And then I said to my sister that we had to hide. I was a little bit ahead of [my sister and nephew] when the strike happened and killed them.

His sister and nephew were “literally cut into pieces,” the laborer said. His leg was injured.

Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated a video, published to social media on February 3, showing a large dust and smoke plume from the strike location. Human Rights Watch also verified and geolocated 6 photographs from a Nyala resident that show two damaged buildings at the corner of the road. Satellite imagery from March 5 shows damage to both buildings.

Click to expand Image Satellite imagery from March 5, 2025, shows two damaged buildings at the location of a February 3 airstrike on Congo Road in Nyala, South Darfur. Image © 2025 Airbus. Google Earth. Analysis Human Rights Watch. Strike Near Mecca Eye Hospital, February 3

A bomb hit a grocery store less than 30 meters east of the Mecca Eye Hospital on the afternoon of February 3. Human Rights Watch spoke with six witnesses and survivors, who confirmed that at least 13 civilians had been killed and 16 injured. Three uniformed RSF fighters who were drinking tea on the street were also killed, one witness said. The strike took place after the strike on Congo road, witnesses said.

“Before the first explosion, there was the sound of an airplane,” said a medical professional who was working inside the hospital at the time. “When we heard the [first] explosion, we asked people to go out. Then the second explosion happened… minutes after the first one.”

The plane they had heard and seen was white, a woman who survived the strike said.

Before the strike there were “a lot of travelers coming and going” on the street near the hospital, said a shop employee who was finishing his workday when the munition hit, “people were moving. Others were coming in and out of … the hospital.” Another witness said there were many people drinking coffee at a café in the vicinity of the hospital and that the street was particularly busy with civilian vehicles.

After the first airstrike hit on Congo Road, a woman who worked as a casual laborer said, “People were terrified. They started to go out into the street to see what was happening. Some of them were running on the street to try to take cover from the attack. There were a lot of people outside… people were taking rickshaws and running around.”

The strike hit a grocery store, destroying it, and damaged other buildings and at least one vehicle. Human Rights Watch verified and geolocated a video published to social media on February 3 at the location of the strike showing a building largely destroyed. A white Toyota Landcruiser is stopped in the road, severely damaged. The facade of the Mecca Eye Hospital is also visibly damaged, as are buildings on both sides of the road. Similar damage can be seen on satellite imagery from March 5.

Click to expand Image Satellite imagery from March 5, 2025, shows a destroyed building at the location of a February 3 airstrike near the Mecca Eye Hospital in Nyala, South Darfur. Several other buildings on both sides of the road appear damaged, including the Hospital. Image © 2025 Airbus. Google Earth.

A man who arrived after the strike described the scene:

[The] place was completely destroyed and damaged by the airstrike. Many people were killed... One was an [older] lady… And the passengers in a Toyota vehicle, and people passing by. [T]here were over 35 people injured or killed… all of them… civilians… Bodies were scattered… I asked the people who were there, “Is there any RSF presence, or people in uniform?” They said no.

The shop employee was with three relatives at the time. The strike killed his 32-year-old cousin, who was “torn apart,” and severely injured the other two. He said he saw six other civilians killed as well as six injured people at the local supermarket. He was injured in the head, chest, and arm. At the time of the interview, metal fragments remained lodged in his chest because he had been unable to afford surgery.

The woman who worked as a casual laborer said the strike killed her 39-year-old mother on the spot, with catastrophic injuries to her left arm and abdomen, and injured her 14-year-old brother in the knee and her uncle, in his late 30s, in the head, back, and ankle. She said a colleague of her mother, who worked as a cleaner, was also killed on the spot, her arms severed.

Three men who worked at a juice store were killed on the spot, as was a woman in her early 20s known as Mushtaha, who worked as a tea seller.

Another woman who was on the street saw the body of the tea seller, alongside those of two men who had been killed in a car, and the bodies of three uniformed RSF fighters who were drinking tea at the time of the strike. She said she had been injured in her right breast and could not afford surgery. “I'm still bleeding, and the injury is not healing,” she said in early April. “It affects my life severely.”

A doctor said he saw four people who had been killed on the spot, and helped move three people who had been injured. A worker for a nongovernmental organization said he was in his office in the neighborhood when the strike hit and injured his colleague in the leg. Human Rights Watch also spoke with a middle-age worker who said he was injured in the jaw during the strike.

One woman who survived said that after the strike, RSF forces came to the site to collect the bodies of all the victims and give first aid to the injured.

Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs of remnants from the bomb received from a Nyala resident on February 20 and identified the tail fin assembly of an air-dropped OFAB-250 bomb.

Click to expand Image Photograph shared by a Nyala resident on April 21, 2025, shows remnants of an air-dropped OFAB-250 bomb recovered at the site of a February 3 strike near the Mecca Eye Hospital in Nyala, South Darfur.  © Private Two Strikes on Al-Jumhuriya neighborhood, February 3

At least two explosive munitions fell in a predominantly residential area in the middle of Al-Jumhuriya neighborhood on February 3, killing at least 13 people, including 6 adults and 7 children, four witnesses said. Photographs shared on social media on February 3, and geolocated by Human Rights Watch show extensive damage to two residential compounds. Satellite imagery from March 5 also confirms the destruction.

Click to expand Image Satellite imagery from March 5, 2025, shows two heavily damaged residential compounds at the location of two February 3 airstrikes in the middle of Al-Jumhuriya neighborhood in Nyala, South Darfur. Image © 2025 Airbus. Google Earth.

One explosive munition fell on homes, killing an 8-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl and injuring at least two other civilians, said one man, who was a neighbor of the children who died. His own house was severely damaged, and his relatives injured in the strike.

At least 12 people were killed in another strike near houses in Al-Jumhuriya neighborhood, three witnesses said. One man said:

[After] the first strike [near] the [Nyala Teaching] hospital, we saw a lot of dust in the air. So we knew… I was running toward our house… I was outside in the street. I saw children fetching water. At that point, the airplane was heading north. At the same time [I was] looking at the airplane… The plane turned around and hit [near] the house… in the middle of the street… The shrapnel hit the children strongly… When I checked on the children, I saw their limbs.

The man’s sister, who was in her mid-20s, and his 20-year-old son, were both killed in the attack.

The owner of a neighborhood restaurant, who survived the same strike but whose her 8-year-old daughter was killed, said the plane had been circling for a while when, concerned, she decided to close her shop for the day and prepared to leave. Then the munition hit:

When the strike happened, I was on the ground, I was very scared. I pronounced the declaration of faith. Then I felt something burn in my skin and started to see bleeding. I looked to my shop [and] I saw it was destroyed. A boy called Mohanned, son of my neighbor… was screaming. The shop was collapsed and there were people inside. I started to scream to get people to help me.

No one came. No one answered my screams… 

Mohanned was killed… [He was] around 14 years old. His sibling Mohammed… was also killed… [He was] around 8 years old. Those two children were killed along with my daughter… She was 8 years old… My four [other] children were injured.

Her neighbor was in the market when the strike happened and when he returned, he found that his wife and three children had been killed. “When we came back, we found my family on the ground with their limbs severed,” he said. “There were 10 people around the house, also killed.”

Two witnesses said the RSF fighters would occasionally go to a facility in close proximity to the site of the strike. After the strike, he said RSF fighters came in a vehicle and together with civilians collected the bodies and took them to the hospital.

Strike north of the Cinema roundabout, February 3

A bomb hit the road north of the Cinema roundabout and northwest of the Mecca Eye Hospital, in the afternoon of February 3. One witness who passed by the site shortly after the strike said he heard that four people had been killed in a rickshaw and two in a car. A video published on social media on February 3 and geolocated by Human Rights Watch shows the immediate aftermath of the strike. Three bodies, including at least one woman, are visible, lying on the street as well as a destroyed, still burning rickshaw. Two men wearing military clothing are showing the bodies of the victims to the person filming.

Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs from a Nyala resident on March 25, and measurements of the remnants of the munition recovered at the site and concluded that the remnants were from an FAB-series general purpose air-dropped bomb. 

Click to expand Image Photograph shared by a Nyala resident on April 15, 2025, shows remnants of an FAB-series general purpose air-dropped bomb at the site of a February 3 strike north of the Cinema roundabout in Nyala, South Darfur.  © Private

Photographs provided by the Nyala resident show an impact crater on the road, two destroyed vehicles – a car and a smaller vehicle – and damaged buildings on the side of the road. The destroyed buildings can also be seen on satellite imagery from March 5.

Click to expand Image Photograph shared by a Nyala resident on February 6, 2025, shows two destroyed vehicles at the location of a February 3 airstrike north of the Cinema roundabout in Nyala, South Darfur. © Private Click to expand Image Satellite imagery from March 5, 2025, shows damaged buildings at the location of a February 3 airstrike north of the Cinema roundabout in Nyala, South Darfur. Two destroyed vehicles and the crater are still visible in the satellite imagery. Image © 2025 Airbus. Google Earth.

Human Rights Watch geolocated a video published on social media on February 3 that shows a large smoke and dust plume rising from the location of the strike. The video is recorded from a building 120 meters west of the strike. A man wearing an RSF uniform is visible at the entrance of the building from where the video was recorded. 

Click to expand Image Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood (R), reacts as Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson (L), purposes amendments that would affect Harkins' proposed legislation that would shift control of the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport to state officials and surrounding counties, March 3, 2016, in Senate chambers at the Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi. © 2016 Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo

A federal court has allowed Jackson, the Blackest major city in the US, to pursue claims that the state of Mississippi is trying to strip away control of its airport for racially discriminatory reasons.

Last week, US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves denied the state’s latest attempt to dismiss Jackson’s lawsuit, clearing the way for a case that could expose how some state governments undermine Black political power through seemingly race-neutral laws.

Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport generates millions in revenue and creates thousands of jobs in the Jackson area. It is one of the city’s largest economic assets and a point of community pride. Local taxpayers and their elected leaders, the majority of whom are Black, have built and operated the airport for decades. The state government and its majority-white legislature appear poised to seize control.

In 2016, Mississippi’s majority-white legislature passed a law that would abolish Jackson’s majority-Black elected airport authority and replace it with an appointed board, selected by state officials who are all white. Jackson sued the state legislature, arguing the state takeover of the airport would violate the equal protection clause of the US Constitution, which prohibits racial discrimination. A federal judge ruled in May that Jackson has legal standing, meaning the city gets to make its case in court.

Mississippi has not elected a Black person to statewide office in more than 130 years, despite Black people making up nearly 38 percent of the state population. Jackson, the state capital, is where Black Mississippians find the greatest opportunities to win election to office.

Mississippi has previously proposed "reforms" that strip political power from Black voters and elected officials. In 2023, the state legislature passed a pair of laws targeting Jackson. The state created appointed courts answerable only to state officials and expanded a state police force with a record of violence. It removed both systems from local accountability, diluting the voices of Black voters. The airport takeover attempt predates the recent laws but is part of the same trend.

In its May 23 ruling, the federal court found Jackson alleges justiciable injuries from what it called the state's "allegedly racist conduct." It noted the city has been singled out for treatment to which no other cities in Mississippi are subject. The court wrote, the injuries alleged are "concrete," not hypothetical.

Jackson is now preparing to argue the 2016 airport takeover law is a form of racial discrimination, even though it is seemingly race-neutral. The city will rely on the US Constitution’s equal protection clause, which the court noted was created in the aftermath of the Civil War to protect newly emancipated Black Americans from discrimination.

Click to expand Image Turkmen activist Umidajan Bekchanova.  © 2025 Private

(Berlin, June 3, 2025) – Turkish authorities should immediately release Umidajan Bekchanova, a Turkmen dissident currently held in a deportation center in Istanbul, Human Rights Watch said today. They should guarantee that Bekchanova is not forcibly returned to Turkmenistan, where she faces a serious risk of persecution and abuse.

“Bekchanova’s detention puts her at immediate risk of being sent back to Turkmenistan, where independent activism and dissent are severely punished,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Türkiye should uphold its international obligations and not send Bekchanova to any country where she faces a grave risk of persecution, arbitrary detention, or worse.”

On May 29, 2025, police detained Bekchanova, 45, and took her to Arnavutköy deportation center in Istanbul. On June 1, Turkish police transferred her to Çatalca deportation center.

Bekchanova’s lawyer has filed an appeal of the deportation decision and is planning to appeal her detention. The May 30 deportation decision claims that Bekchanova is a threat to Türkiye’s public order and public security and has been involved in “provocative” actions. Türkiye’s Law on Foreigners and International Protection (article 54 (1) (d)) allows it to deport people who threaten public order, public security or public health. The decision provides no information substantiating the claim.

Turkish authorities have used similar claims to justify deportation orders against other Turkmen activists.

Bekchanova is currently undocumented, as her Turkmen passport recently expired and Turkish migration authorities cancelled her residence permit in 2024.

Bekchanova’s public criticism of the Turkmen government puts her at imminent risk of persecution, torture and other ill-treatment upon return to Turkmenistan, Human Rights Watch said. Turkish authorities should allow her to apply for international protection status under Turkish law, if she wants to.

Türkiye’s international partners should call on the Turkish authorities to cease any plans to deport Bekchanova and other Turkmen activists currently in custody.

Bekchanova had been living in Türkiye legally since 2017. In 2020, she began participating anonymously in social media discussions associated with Turkmen exiled dissidents that were critical of the Turkmen government’s handling of the country’s economic crisis and poverty, and of the authorities’ suppression of free speech. She participated, masked, in peaceful protests against the Turkmen government’s repressive policies, created anonymous videos advocating human rights for Turkmen nationals, and organized flash mobs outside Turkmenistan calling for freedom of expression and speech within the country.

In late 2020, Bekchanova joined HSM, a group of exiled Turkmen dissidents, without concealing her identity. The group hosts a YouTube channel that is harshly critical of the Turkmen government and has more than 25,000 subscribers. She also manages several social media accounts of Turkmen exiled dissidents. Her personal YouTube channel, TAGA (Channel for Women’s Voices), has over 3,000 subscribers.

Turkmenistan’s authorities routinely target independent journalists, perceived critics, and activists, including in exile, through arbitrary detention, arbitrary foreign travel bans, and harassment and intimidation against their family members. The justice system completely lacks independence and transparency. Torture is widespread and dozens of people have been forcibly disappeared in Turkmen prisons, some for more than 22 years.

Turkmen authorities have targeted Bekchanova’s family to try to silence her, Human Rights Watch said. Bekchanova has said that in 2020, after her older son had shared information with her about long bread lines and the like in Turkmenistan, Turkmen authorities detained him for 15 days, during which they reportedly used electric shocks on him. In 2024, her younger son was sentenced to threeyears on robbery charges that Bekchanova has alleged trumped-up.

On January 20, Bekchanova by chance learned that in October 2024 Turkish migration authorities had cancelled her residence permit, which was originally valid through February 2025. When Bekchanova’s lawyer initially inquired about the cancellation, Turkish migration authorities verbally alleged that Turkish authorities had said that she was involved in “provocative actions” and that the decision to cancel the permit was made at the Turkmen authorities’ behest. The Turkish authorities did not specify what actions Bekchanova allegedly committed and provided no information in writing.

On January 22, the migration authorities issued Bekchanova a notification about the cancelation of her residence permit, but the document does not specify a reason. Bekchanova’s lawyer filed a lawsuit against the cancelation on January 28. The court case is ongoing.

Bekchanova’s Turkmen passport expired in April 2025.

Bekchanova’s detention reflects a broader pattern in which Turkish authorities routinely detain and, in some cases deport to Turkmenistan, Turkmen migrants, who have become undocumented due to the refusal by Turkmenistan’s authorities to renew passports through consular services in Türkiye. These include activists who became government critics during their stay in Türkiye.

Turkmen rights groups in exile reported that Turkmen officials had promptly detained several activists upon their return to Turkmenistan following deportation from Türkiye and imprisoned some on what appear to be politically motivated charges.

Two other Turkmen activists, Abdulla Orusov and Alisher Sakhatov, whom Turkish authorities detained on April 28, remain in deportation custody.

Türkiye’s treaty obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the 1951 Refugee Convention require it to uphold the principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits the return of anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other ill-treatment, or a threat to life.

“Sending Bekchanova to Turkmenistan would potentially mean sentencing her to suffering and torment at the hands of Turkmen authorities,” Denber said. “Türkiye is obligated not to expose her and other activists to the risk of torture and persecution.”

 

Click to expand Image Tiananmen Square. June 4th, 1989. © 1989 Stuart Franklin/MAGNUM

(New York) – Thirty-six years after the killing of countless peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, the Chinese government still seeks to erase the memory of the June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should cease censorship of the crackdown, allow commemorations, provide compensation to the victims’ families, and hold accountable officials responsible for abuses.

As in previous years, as the June 4 anniversary approaches, authorities across China are making a preemptive crackdown on commemorations, notably those by members of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group of relatives of Tiananmen Massacre victims.One prominent member, Zhang Xianling (张先玲), 87, told Radio Free Asia that even though she could barely “walk 200 meters without a wheelchair,” the authorities continue to subject her and others to strict surveillance and restrictions on her movement.

“The Chinese government has never owned up to the Tiananmen Massacre, much less provided redress for victims and their families,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Beijing’s enforced amnesia has deepened authoritarian rule in China, yet it has not extinguished demands for the truth, democracy, and respect for human rights.”

The preemptive crackdown on Tiananmen Massacre commemorations is a stark reminder of China’s ongoing repression of dissent and its continued violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The Tiananmen Massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gathering of students, workers, and others in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and other Chinese cities in April 1989, calling for free expression, democratic reform, and an end to corruption. The government responded to the intensifying demonstrations in late May 1989 by declaring martial law. On June 3-4, People’s Liberation Army soldiers fired upon and killed numerous protesters and bystanders in Beijing.

The government’s ban on commemorations has extended from mainland China to Hong Kong since mid-2020, when it imposed the draconian National Security Law over the city. Authorities first banned the annual Tiananmen Massacre vigil on Covid-19 grounds in 2020 and 2021, and in 2021 also forced the vigil organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance, and its June 4 Museum to close.

The authorities accused the Hong Kong Alliance and its three former leaders – Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, and Chow Hang-tung – of “inciting subversion” under the National Security Law, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The three have been in pretrial detention for more than three years; their trial is scheduled for November 2025. Chow and four other former Hong Kong Alliance members were also convicted of failing to comply with a national security police information request; their three- to four-and-a-half-month sentences were quashed in March 2025.

Some people in Hong Kong have persisted in their attempts to commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre near Victoria Park, where the annual vigil was held. Police have arrested dozens. On June 4, 2024, police warned a man whose phone flashlight was on while he sat alone on a park bench that this may constitute “sedition” under the National Security Law. Police arrested four people on ambiguous grounds that day; one was sentenced in December to ten weeks in prison for “assaulting police officers.”

Censorship and self-censorship about the Tiananmen Massacre have become commonplace in Hong Kong. In November 2024, Hong Kong authorities changed the label of a lamppost, FA8964, as it contained an accidental reference to the date of the crackdown. In December 2024, Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific apologized for including content in its inflight entertainment system that featured a scene from the Tiananmen Massacre.

While the Chinese government enforces silence inside mainland China and Hong Kong, many have continued the legacy of the 1989 pro-democracy protesters. Most prominently, in 2022, a lone protester named Peng Lifa (彭立发) unfurled protest banners on a busy Beijing bridge, inspiring others and sparking the White Paper protests a few months later. Peng has been compared to the symbol of defiance, the “Tank Man” of the Tiananmen Massacre, who was famously captured on film blocking a column of tanks the morning after the crackdown.

Outside of China and Hong Kong, diaspora groups and anonymous social media accounts around the world have in recent years held public discussions, exhibitions, gatherings, and published essays to commemorate the crackdown. This year, 77 events in 40 cities in 10 countries have been planned.

Following the Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese government carried out a nationwide crackdown and arrested thousands of people on “counterrevolution” and other criminal charges, including arson and disrupting social order. The government has never accepted responsibility for the massacre or held any officials legally accountable for the killings. It did not investigate the events or release data on those who were killed, injured, forcibly disappeared, or imprisoned. Tiananmen Mothers documented the details of 202 people who were killed during the suppression of the movement in Beijing and other cities.

The government has continued to ignore international and domestic calls for justice for the Tiananmen Massacre. Sanctions that the US government imposed in response to the massacre have over the years been weakened or evaded. The lack of meaningful international sanctions following the massacre and ensuing crackdown partly explains Beijing’s brazen human rights violations in the ensuing decades, including crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang and the erasure of basic freedoms in Hong Kong, Human Rights Watch said.

On the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, the Chinese government should take the following steps:

Respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and cease the harassment and arbitrary detention of those who challenge the official account of the Tiananmen Massacre;Meet with and apologize to members of the Tiananmen Mothers, publish the names of all who died or were wrongfully imprisoned, and appropriately compensate the victims’ families;Permit an independent public inquiry into the Tiananmen Massacre and its aftermath, and promptly publish the findings and conclusions;Allow without conditions the return of Chinese citizens who were exiled due to their connections to the events of 1989; andInvestigate all government and military officials who planned or ordered the unlawful use of lethal force against demonstrators and appropriately prosecute them.

Foreign governments should renew efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for its past grave abuses. They should also publicly mark the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, including in their embassies and consulates and online accounts in China, join diaspora activities around the world, and on June 4 press the Chinese government for accountability.

“Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to repress memory of the Tiananmen Massacre, the incident continues to reverberate around the world,” Uluyol said. “Foreign governments should support and echo acts of remembrance by commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre and pressuring Beijing to finally accept its responsibilities.”

Click to expand Image M23 fighters at the Stade de l'Unité in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, February 6, 2025. © 2025 ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP via Getty Images

(Nairobi) – The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group summarily executed at least 21 civilians and most likely many more in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 22-23, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today.

The M23 has occupied Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, since January 27, 2025. Witnesses said that on the afternoon of February 22, at least three pickup trucks carrying dozens of M23 fighters arrived at various parts of Goma’s Kasika neighborhood. They executed seven people west of Katindo military camp, a former Congolese army barracks. The bodies of 11 more people, including a boy, were found at a construction site near the camp. On February 23, the fighters rounded up people, including to forcibly recruit them, and killed three men as they tried to escape.

“The M23’s brutal control over Goma has created a climate of fear among those perceived to be allied to the Congolese government,,” said Clémentine de Montjoye, senior Great Lakes researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The mass killings don’t seem to be actions by rogue fighters, but rather the M23 leadership’s efforts to solidify their control by whatever means necessary.”

The absence of reports of fighting between the warring parties and the nature of the wounds indicate that M23 fighters deliberately executed those in their custody, which are war crimes, Human Rights Watch said.

Between February and May, Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 22 people, including witnesses to the killings, victims’ relatives, and medical workers, among others. Researchers reviewed media reports, and geolocated and analyzed photographs and videos sent directly by sources or found on social media. On May 23, Human Rights Watch contacted Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the M23’s allied Alliance Fleuve Congo, but received no response. 

Human Rights Watch received credible information that the M23 was drawn to the Kasika neighborhood because of reports of crime and activity by the Congolese army and the “Wazalendo,” militia groups aligned with the Congolese government. M23 fighters searched houses and local businesses for young men. “They started shooting and took around 25 people from the streets,” said a resident of an area close to Katindo camp, whose 25-year-old relative was killed that day. 

Human Rights Watch confirmed that M23 fighters executed seven people on streets close to Katindo camp and received credible reports of dozens more killings. “[The M23] went into stores and shot people in the head on the Avenue du Commandant Belge,” said a witness. “The bodies were then piled up in two places: 10 in one place and 15 in another.” Residents described seeing over a dozen bodies on Kasika Avenue. “[The M23] showed me the bodies of people on the ground and said: ‘This is what we're going to do with you,’” said a woman whose relative was taken away. “I saw 18 bodies; others were on other streets.”

Eleven bodies were found at a construction site less than 100 meters from the camp, based on witness accounts and geolocated and verified videos and photographs. Human Rights Watch verified the identities of six victims, all civilians and neighborhood residents. 

The relative of a victim taken from their house said: “The M23 walked off with him, and the next morning we found his body in the construction site with other bodies.” A relative and a neighbor of a 15-year-old boy said that the M23 took him and executed him, and dumped his body in the construction site with the others.

Photographs and videos show several bullet holes and blood on the wall on the execution site, as well as items on the ground that appear to be bullet cases, indicating that some of the victims were shot there. The Independent Forensic Expert Group of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims estimates less than 24 hours had passed since the people were killed and photographed, matching witness accounts. A photograph posted to Facebook at 10:13 p.m. local time on February 22, taken during daylight hours, indicates the victims were killed sometime before nightfall, at 6:40 p.m. on February 22. 

On February 22, M23 fighters shot three people on a street just west of Kasika. “When we arrived, my friend and two others were still breathing,” said a friend of a victim. “The M23 refused to let us approach them and fired into the ground. When [my friend] died, they agreed to let us take him to the morgue.” Human Rights Watch geolocated a video shared by a resident showing one of the bodies being loaded onto a truck on Mulongwe Avenue, west of the neighborhood. The witness said he saw six other bodies on that street. 

Human Rights Watch also geolocated and verified a video showing men rounded up by M23 fighters on February 23 near a sports field commonly known as “terrain des scouts.” “We saw the M23 take around 20 people and make them sit on the ground,” said a witness. “They started intimidating them – they were youth from the neighborhood, but they accused them of being FARDC [Congolese army]. At least three people tried to run away but were shot dead.” An independent source corroborated that men trying to escape were killed, but could not verify the victims’ identities.

The video shows an M23 fighter with a red arm band, believed to belong to the military police unit. The detained men were driven away in a truck, according to a witness. A resident and an independent source said they believed the men were being forcibly recruited.

Click to expand Image © 2025 Human Rights Watch

Three medical workers said that over 50 bodies were collected from the Kasika area on February 22 and 23, which matches information provided by residents and others. Human Rights Watch verified the identities of 13 victims. Many of those killed had a gunshot wound to the head or chest, based on witness accounts.

Commanders and combatants who directly ordered or carried out abuses should be held criminally accountable, Human Rights Watch said. Military commanders and civilian officials can also be held criminally liable for crimes committed by their subordinates if they knew or should have known of crimes being committed and failed to prevent or punish the crimes. 

The fighting in eastern Congo between the M23 and Rwandan forces against the Congolese military and allied armed groups has exposed civilians to serious crimes by all parties to the conflict, including summary killings, sexual violence, forced displacement, and pillage.

In October 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor announced that his office would renew investigative efforts in Congo with a focus on crimes in North Kivu since January 2022. The court’s investigation should include the executions of civilians in Goma by M23 fighters, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Rwandan government, as the direct supporter of the M23, may be complicit in the armed group’s war crimes,” de Montjoye said. “Concerned governments, including those attempting to broker peace deals between the warring parties, should press Rwanda to end its support and ensure that justice for serious crimes is a priority.”

Click to expand Image Séance d'ouverture de la 113ème Conférence internationale du Travail, tenue au siège de l'Organisation internationale du Travail (OIT) au Palais des Nations à Genève, le 2 juin 2025. © 2025 Violaine Martin / OIT

(Geneva) – Governments and employers’ representatives at the International Labour Organization (ILO) conference should agree to a new treaty to protect “gig” workers, 33 civil society groups, trade unions, and human rights organizations said today. The groups released a joint declaration during the second day of the 113th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, which is meeting until June 12, 2025.

The groups highlighted the urgent need to address critical gaps in labor protections in the rapidly expanding platform economy, where companies recruit workers to perform jobs or “gigs” offered through apps or websites. Platform workers frequently experience employment misclassification, low and fluctuating income, lack of social security, and barriers to unionizing, while being surveilled and managed by unaccountable and untransparent algorithmic systems. Adopting an ILO convention and an accompanying nonbinding recommendation that provides guidance on the convention’s obligations is crucial for protecting platform workers’ rights.

“Platform companies profit enormously from a business model that strips workers of their rights,” said Lena Simet, senior economic justice researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “The adoption of a Convention and Recommendation would send a powerful signal that technological change should not come at the cost of human rights.”

The groups emphasized in their joint declaration that employers should not misclassify platform workers as independent contractors since that denies them rights to minimum wage protections, freedom of association and collective bargaining, and social security. Platform workers may not even have human supervisors and are subjected to opaque decision-making by automated algorithms, further eroding their job security and working conditions.

“Platform workers are at the forefront of new forms of data exploitation in the workplace,” said Tom West, program director of Privacy International. “Secret algorithms, biased decisions and a lack of rights have all contributed to a deterioration in working conditions and employee/employer relations. A new ILO convention must respond to this technological environment and prevent these harmful practices becoming further entrenched and accepted.”

There are currently no binding international laws that explicitly address the labor conditions experienced by platform workers, though international human rights law outlines the protections that all workers are entitled to. The ILO has an urgent opportunity to ensure that platform workers, a significant and growing part of the work force, are able to access their rights in full.

The proposed international standards should explicitly recognize waiting periods for assignments as working time, establish clear criteria to prevent disguised employment relationships, and create effective grievance mechanisms and access to a remedy for workers harmed by algorithmic management.

“Platform workers face insecurity, low pay, and are excluded from social security while companies make billions,” said Isabel Ortiz, director of Global Social Justice. “Binding ILO standards are crucial to ensure these precarious workers have decent jobs and are included in social security systems. Some countries have shown it can be done; now it must happen everywhere.”

The joint declaration builds on research by academic scholars, civil society organizations, and governments highlighting the unregulated platform economy’s role in deepening inequality and eroding labor standards around the globe. A recent Human Rights Watch report documented that many platform workers in the United States earn below minimum and living wages, lack adequate social protection, and experience invasive and nontransparent algorithmic control. Moreover, platform companies often avoid tax and social security contributions, undermining funding for public services and social protection, all while building billion-dollar industries.

“This is a pivotal opportunity to shape the future of work with fairness and accountability at its core,” said Eduardo Carillo, consultant in public policy and international incidence at The Association of Technology, Education, Development, Research, Communication (TEDIC). “By adopting binding standards, the international community can reaffirm its commitment to protecting workers in an increasingly digitalized economy. This declaration also underscores the need for a coordinated effort among diverse stakeholders to closely follow the upcoming discussions at the ILO and advocate for outcomes that uphold fair work standards and serve the interests of workers worldwide.”

Negotiations on the new standards are underway at the International Labour Conference. The discussions on scope and content will conclude at the 114th session in 2026, when the final instruments would be formally adopted if member states, and employers’ and workers’ representatives reach agreement.

The groups urge governments and employers to commit to strong, binding international standards that reflect the realities of platform work, protect human rights, and reinforce the ILO’s mandate to secure decent work for all.

Barwaqa Relief OrganizationBiozid Climate InstituteCentre for Environment, Human Rights & Development Forum - CEHRDF, BangladeshCentro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (Dejusticia), ColombiaCFF-GhanaDerechos DigitalesDisability Peoples Forum UgandaEquidemFederation of Environmental and Ecological Diversity for Agricultural Revampment and Human Rights (FEEDAR & HR)Gig and Platform Services Workers Union (GIPSWU) IndiaGlobal Coalition for Social Protection FloorsGlobal Social JusticeHuman Rights WatchInstitute for Economic Justice, South AfricaInstitute of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Loreto GeneralateInterfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)ISIZIBA Community Based Organizations of South Africa NPCIT for ChangeInternational Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW)Jamaa Resource Initiatives, KenyaLa Maison des LivreursLieferando Workers CollectiveLUNA CRECIENTE - Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres de Sectores PopularesMédecins du Monde FranceMigrant*innen für Menschenwürdige ArbeitNational Forum for Human Rights – YemenPrivacy InternationalSuccess Capital AfricaSyndicat Chrétien des Travailleurs du Congo SCTCTEDICThe African Youth CafeThe Doaba Foundation